May 7 marks the 25th anniversary of “The Shot:” Michael Jordan’s buzzer-beating reminder to Cleveland that the city can’t win anything. Ever.

Alright, that opening came across as way too mean. However, let’s be real. There’s something terrible about Michael Jordan vacuuming all the hope out a city at the last second.

The scene gets worse when you watch it in context rather than a Gatorade commercial. The Cavs had Chicago’s number that season. Craig Ehlo scored 15 points in the fourth quarter. Plus he dropped, what many believed, the game-winning bucket with three seconds left. Craig’s squad only needed to endure three more ticks to solidify their dominance over Chicago. The city would’ve christened Craig as a franchise great as his team set their eyes on a championship run.

Then, MJ got free off the inbound pass, pulled up, said “Nah, not today homey” and drained one of the coldest jumpers in NBA history. “The Shot” stood as another example of how sports stage conflict better than your everyday fiction. Except the sudden switch from hero-status to “you ain’t sh*t” and vice versa can happen in a blink. It’s really powerful stuff when you think about it.

The Bulls beat the Knicks in the semis then lost to the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. Chicago took their lumps as the Jordan Rules became, as Magic Johnson would say, too “out-physical” for the Bulls. At the same time the team and Michael Jordan came up on a moment that’s always proudly attached to their respective histories.

Craig Ehlo was a really good player too. Solid roleplayer, could score, rebound, etc… MJ snatched his life tho.

I don’t think Parsons should feel too bad—he’s a 6’8 forward tryna run down a super-fast 6’2 PG on the perimeter–when does that ever end well? Besides Pat Beverly was supposed to handle Lillard on the switch but James Harden’s flaky ass tells Beverly and Parsons not to switch off before the ball was inbounded–go watch the replay.

Still a great shot. you gotta drain it and kid clapped till he got it then netted it.

MJ is still the greatest, Russell #2 and Oscar #3. (the O.G. TSS commenter has spoken.)

@CO Killer Yeah but the Cavs had some great teams. They just ran into Bird and Jordan too much. I would even put those teams above any of the terrible rosters LeBron dragged to the playoffs. The Cavs were cool… that is until Shawn Kemp showed up.